Weekly Review: July 15, 2017

This has been a fun travel week for me, as I’ve spent the past week enroute to China, and then Mongolia. Mongolia has been awesome so far — I’ll have a lot more on it shortly. Soon I’ll be headed to Europe, and then I still have to figure out how I’ll get back to the US from there.

On the miles & points front, there has been a lot going on this past week. JetBlue has introduced a status match opportunity, American discontinued their codeshare agreement with Etihad and Qatar, Jet Airways cut ties with American, several more airlines had their electronics bans lifted, and much more.

With that out of the way, here’s a recap of this week on the blog:

Featured Stories

Overall I’ve found that it has become significantly easier to make purchases abroad over the past few years. Going back many years I’d make most of my purchases abroad using cash (which I’d withdraw from an ATM once I arrived at my destination), given how many credit cards had foreign transaction fees, how many places didn’t accept credit cards, etc.

However, I’ve found that has changed significantly over the past several years, to the point that I’ve taken some trips where I haven’t withdrawn any cash at all.

Late last year I posted about how the Seniors Pass for the National Parks is really an amazing deal. To recap, this is the pass that admits those 62 and older into our national parks and monuments for free. In fact, it not only admits the pass holder, but also anyone traveling in the same vehicle, regardless of their age. It’s really an incredible deal.

Perhaps the best part is that the cost of the pass has been just $10, and hasn’t changed since 1994. But last December, we learned that the price would increase drastically to $80 as part of the National Park Centennial Act that President Obama signed. Even so, we didn’t know when the price was going up, just that it was supposed to happen this year. Well, now we know the date that the price goes up.

From the beginning I was wondering whether the Polaris marketing wasn’t a bit premature. They announced the start date for Polaris as being December 1, even though it would be several months before the first plane featured the new seats. That doesn’t even account for the fact that it would be five years until all the planes would feature the new seats.

This is the first year where the American AAdvantage program has a revenue requirement. You need to spend a minimum of $3,000, $6,000, $9,000, or $12,000 to earn Gold, Platinum, Platinum Pro, and Executive Platinum, respectively. American is also making…

Hello from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia! After flying Air China's 747-8 first class from San Francisco to Beijing, I spent a night in Beijing before continuing the next morning to Mongolia. I think a lot of people assume it's tough to get from the US to Mongolia,…

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About luckyBen Schlappig (aka Lucky) is a travel consultant, blogger, and avid points collector. He travels about 400,000 miles a year, primarily using miles and points to fund his first class experiences. He chronicles his adventures, along with industry news, here at One Mile At A Time.

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About Lucky

Ben Schlappig (aka Lucky) is a travel consultant, blogger, and avid points collector. He travels about 400,000 miles a year, primarily using miles and points to fund his first class experiences. He chronicles his adventures, along with industry news, here at One Mile At A Time.

Meet The Team

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